Galactic Patrol Read Free Page B

Finally the aero landed beside a long, comparatively low building – a structure heavily guarded, inside Base although it was --
    within which Kinnison saw a thing that fairly snatched away his breath.
    A spaceship it was -- but what a ship!1 In bulk it was vastly larger even than the superdreadnaughts of the Patrol, but, unlike them, it was .in shape a perfect teardrop, streamlined to the ultimate possible degree.
    "What do you think of her?" the Port Admiral asked.
    `Think of her!” The young officer gulped twice before he attained coherence. "I can't put it in words, sir, but some day, if I live long enough and develop enough force, I hope to command a ship like that."
    "Sooner than you think, Kinnison," Haynes told him, flatly. "You are in command of her beginning tomorrow morning"
    "Huh? Me?" Kinnison exclaimed, but sobered quickly. "Oh, I see, sir. It takes ten years of proved accomplishment to rate command of a first-class vessel, and I have no rating at all. You have already intimated that this ship is experimental. There is, then, something about her that is new and untried, and so dangerous that you do not want to risk an experienced commander in her. I am to give her a work-out, and if I can bring her 1 In the 'big teardrops" -- cruisers and battleships -- the driving force is always directed upward, along the geometrical axis of the ship, and the artificial gravity is always downward along that same line.
    Thus, throughout any possible maneuvering, free or inert, "down" and "up" have the same significance as within any Earthly structure.
    These vessels are ordinarily landed only in special docks, but in emergencies can be landed almost anywhere, sharp stern down, as their immense weight drives them deep enough into even the hardest ground to keep them upright. They sink in water, but are readily maneuverable, even under water. E.E.S.
    back in one piece I turn her over to her real captain. But that's all right with me, Port Admiral -- thanks a lot for picking me out. What a chance -- What a chance!” and Kinnison's eyes gleamed at the prospect of even a brief command of such a creation.
    "Right -- and wrong," the old Admiral made surprising answer. "It is true that she is new, untried, and dangerous, so much so that we are unwilling to give her to any of our present captains. No, she is not really new, either. Rather, her basic idea is so old that it has been abandoned for centuries. She uses explosives, of a type that cannot be tried out fully except in actual combat. Her primary weapon is what we have called the 'Qgun’. The propellant is heptadetonite, the shell carries a charge of twenty metric tons of duodecaplylatomate."
    'But, sir . . . . ." Kinnison began.
    "Just a minute, I'll go into that later. While your premises were correct, your conclusion is not. You graduated Number One, and in every respect save experience you are as well qualified to command as is any captain of, the Fleet, and since the Brittania is such a radical departure from any conventional type, battle experience is not a prerequisite. Therefore if she holds together through one engagement she is yours for good. In other words, to make up for the possibility of having yourself scattered all over space, you have a chance to win that ten years' rating you mentioned a minute ago, all in one trip. Fair enough?"
    "Fair? It's fine -- wonderful! And thanks a . . . . ."
    "Never mind the thanks until you get back. You were about to comment, I believe, upon the impossibility of using explosives against a free opponent?"
    "It can't be impossible, of course, since the Brittania has been built. I just don't quite see how it could have been made effective."
    "You lock to the pirate with tractors, screen to screen -- about ten kilometers. You blast a hole through his screens to his wallshield. The muzzle of the Q-gun mounts as annular multiplex projector which puts out a Q-type tube of force -- Q47SM9, to be exact. As you can see from the type